岩鷚科yán-liù kē

イワヒバリ科iwa-hibari ka

바위종다리과bawi-jongdari-gwa

Хайруулдайханkhairuuldaikhaŋ

General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Pinyin reflects Mandarin pronunciation; for some dialect names, it is no more than a polite fiction. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green LetteringGreen lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

Chinese does not appear to be endowed with many, if any popular names for the accentors.

Ornithologically the accentors are called 岩鹨yán-liù, meaning 'rock pipit', in Chinese. This name is adopted directly from Japanese in its written form. The Japanese name of Prunella collaris, イワヒバリiwa-hibari'rock lark', has 岩鷚'rock lark' as one of its traditional written forms. Under the influence of the terminological dictionary Zoological Nomenclature of 1923, this name was adopted for the accentors in China's first ornithological list using Chinese names, Chinese Birds of 1927 (35), and retained by later ornithologists.

At the same time, Chinese Birds also adopted the Japanese name 山鷚shān-liù'mountain lark' for the Siberian Accentor (Prunella montanella). However, later ornithologists modified this to 山岩鷚shān-yán-liù ('mountain rock lark') to conform with the rest of the family.

The Japanese use of 鷚 to write ヒバリ'lark' is itself based on older Chinese usage. However, Chinese ornithological usage has since restricted the word 鹨liù to the pipits (Motacillidae). As a result of this restriction in scope, 岩鹨 as used in ornithological Chinese now equates 'rock pipit' rather than its historical meaning of 'rock lark'.

The word Боролдойboroldoi forms part of the name Боролдой болжморboroldoi boljmor, which refers to the Skylark Alauda arvensis (although in Mongolian ornithological lists it is normally found in the form боролзойborolzoi meaning 'tansy'). The name suggests a similarity or connection between the two types of bird.

The name of the accentors in Japanese, イワヒバリiwa-hibari, literally means 'rock-lark'. When written in Chinese characters it is traditionally written as 岩雲雀 or as 岩鷚. The first character, 岩, is the character for イワiwa 'rock'. This is followed by 雲雀, literally 'cloud sparrow', or 鷚, which are alternative ways of writing ヒバリhibari 'lark'. However, in Chinese, 鷚 (pronounced liù or in Taiwan liào) is understood to mean 'pipit'. The name イワヒバリiwa-hibari was originally applied in Japanese to the Alpine Accentor Prunella collaris but it has since been extended to all members of the Prunellidae except Prunella montanella and Prunella rubida, which had existing names, and a couple of extralimital species.